Need advice on losing weight - stuck at a plateau

[xtiiina]

Hi all. I've been working on losing weight for around 2 months now and I've just recently hit a plateau. Things were going great up until 2 weeks ago, I was losing 1-2lbs a week and ever since then I've been stuck at my current weight.
I'm 19, female, I weigh 167lbs and I'm 5'8. I do high intensity cardio 30 minutes a day 5-6 days a week and do a little bit of strength stuff once or twice a week just to try and tone my arms and upper thighs. I eat 1200 calories a day, lots of fruits and veggies and lean meats or fish. The only carbs I eat regularly is my Special K cereal for breakfast and sometimes I'll have a sandwich for lunch. I don't drink pop or eat fast food more than once a month. I never eat anything sugary either, and I only drink water or tea.
I'm really confused as to why I'm not losing weight anymore, what can I do to start losing again?

Also, what can I eat to keep my calories around 1200 per day that's healthy? I eat 200 for breakfast, 400 for lunch, and 600 for dinner. At dinner time I really really struggle to find 600 calories of stuff I can eat because everything I eat is very healthy and therefor low in calories so I have to make a ton of food and sometimes it's just frustrating because I don't know how to cook very much so I find myself eating the same dinner over and over because it's all I know how to make that gives me enough calories without being fattening.

[Majik8ball]

ok, first, mix your cardio up a little. If you have been running for 30 minutes a day, try the stair stepper, or go swim laps. (side thought: you may still be losing weight in fat, but gaining it back in muscle.) Also with your cardio, I would recommend trying to do more if possible. The American Heart Association recommends 30 minutes of moderate-vigorous physical activity per day to maintain your weight. Source: http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Gettin...p#.TxJ0-W_lNG5 )

As for your diet, nuts are great if you want to add calories, but if you are not hungry, don't eat. You don't need to hit 1,200 calories exactly everyday. Also, I have to suggest Clean Eating: http://www.cleaneatingmag.com/ Probably the best tasting "healthy" food I have ever eaten. Definitely try the blueberry strudel, fish & chips, and lamb-burgers.

[Clevername]

Since you have been doing weight training, have you looked a the possibility that this 'plateau' is just you adding a little muscle mass? Which is not a bad thing at all at 5'8'' you are not short for a girl and can be in extremely good shape at 150lbs as a female. It sounds like you're doing everything right, but I would switch up your routine a bit in order to keep the excitement in it, I know pure cardio bores the shit out of me. Try taking some Yoga classes if you're not into more high intensity stuff but personally I love crossfit / sealfit workout routines. They trim you down and provide you with strength and flexibility.

[Jagang]

This may not be the best advice because I don't pay anywhere near the amount of attention to my weight and all of that as you do, but if its possible, try to ride a bicycle to work/school. I know a lot of people who drive and eat just as healthy as me and are still very large and they don't seem to get that an hour total a day of riding a bicycle is probably doing wonders for me.
Also, I go through yogurt like nothing, it may not even be healthy at the level i consume it at but if you haven't thought of it, its delicious.
Only things I can think of that I do differently than you(even though I dont know my calorie counts)

[Skarsguard]

What I did was I ate 5 times a day and also your doing a reverse of what I would do your eating your calories low to high were I would eat mine mid to high to low. Eating the majority of your calories later in the day is not what I would do but that's just me thou also keep your routine the same like I would eat at 6am. then have a snack at 8-9 then lunch at 12 then snack at 3-4 then dinner at 7 and I wouldn't eat anything past 7. On your snacks eat a fruit or some sodium free, salt free nuts and keep on the water but also because your a female don't overdo the water as females retain more of it then males. Keep at it and don't give up also weigh yourself once per month and not every week as weight can fluxuate and be discouraging.

[Comby]

1200 calories is already quite little, you might have gone into starvation mode as your body panics at the high ammount of energy it needs and the little you give it. I would start eating around 500+1000 calories more every 3-4th day so your body stays out of starvation mode. 1200 calories is way too little with an active life.
If you keep yourself in that low calorie range much longer your body will take EVERY chance it gets to put weight back on when you stop the diet, and you might permanently lower your metabolism forever.
Eat 5 meals a day, make sure you eat alot of protein, the food that needs the highest ammount of energy to digest. And take a day where you eat more than normal.

One of the most important mistakes you do is eating small meals at the start of the day, which sets your metabolic rate for the rest of the day, and then eat bigger meals before you go to bed. When sleeping your body's metabolism is at its lowest and is where you gain the most weight.

Start your day with a big meal then gradually decrease it over the day, and dont eat around 4 hours before you go to bed.
Eat 5 small meals 5 times a day, and try to up your ammount to 1500 calories I would say, if you are not already too late in slowing your metabolism

Also people who mention you've gained musclemass is not possible. To gain weight you will have to eat more than your body needs, to lose weight you need to eat less. There is no way you are gaining any sort of muscle on 1200 cals.
+500 calories = more muscles, -500 of your daily need = weightloss. Never go under -500, then your body shuts down and you'll gain it all back + more when you start eating normally again.

Examples of healthy calorie dense food are nuts and fat fish like salmon.

[Skarsguard]

1200 calories is already quite little, you might have gone into starvation mode as your body panics at the high ammount of energy it needs and the little you give it. I would start eating around 500+1000 calories more every 3-4th day so your body stays out of starvation mode. 1200 calories is way too little with an active life.
If you keep yourself in that low calorie range much longer your body will take EVERY chance it gets to put weight back on when you stop the diet, and you might permanently lower your metabolism forever.
Eat 5 meals a day, make sure you eat alot of protein, the food that needs the highest ammount of energy to digest. And take a day where you eat more than normal.

One of the most important mistakes you do is eating small meals at the start of the day, which sets your metabolic rate for the rest of the day, and then eat bigger meals before you go to bed. When sleeping your body's metabolism is at its lowest and is where you gain the most weight.

Start your day with a big meal then gradually decrease it over the day, and dont eat around 4 hours before you go to bed.
Eat 5 small meals 5 times a day, and try to up your ammount to 1500 calories I would say, if you are not already too late in slowing your metabolism

Also people who mention you've gained musclemass is not possible. To gain weight you will have to eat more than your body needs, to lose weight you need to eat less. There is no way you are gaining any sort of muscle on 1200 cals.
+500 calories = more muscles, -500 of your daily need = weightloss. Never go under -500, then your body shuts down and you'll gain it all back + more when you start eating normally again.

Examples of healthy calorie dense food are nuts and fat fish like salmon.

Pretty much what I was saying the less you eat the more your Metabolism slows down by eating 5 times a day it keeps it going. People get confused esp girls about the saying eating to much is bad but what they mean is eating large meals only once or twice a day is bad or just plain gorging. When I was working out I keep to a high protein diet but your not trying to build mass your just trying to tone down so I don't know about shoving protein down. I would stay around 1500 calories the day you don't work out and about 1800-2000 on days you do work out. 1200 Calories is just doing your body bad as it will shut down and not burn any calories or fat it will just store it because it thinks your starving. Eating 5 smaller meals a day tricks your body into thinking it needs to burn more fuel faster.

[Logonov]

ritual is bad for the body in a way(not unhealthy, just makes things familiar), the more mixed up and messed with the routine is the less the body is able to predict and put forth a sort of preset amount of physical output. If youre familiar with the workout product P90x, it's a strong advocate of confusing the muscles and the rest of the body so it doesnt prepare itself.

Bear in mind you could have hit this plateau because of genetics or something to that tune. Women tend to hold onto body fat more readily despite noticably more effort and time put into losing it. So you may have hit your sort of diminishing return.

However i can offer some help(i hope) in workouts and food.

Some less than fun but physically demanding workouts

Super legs: http://www.mytrainer.com/action/view...of_super_legs/ Really demanding leg workout, no weights, can be set to a rep or time limit. I did it for wrestling in high school for endurance and leg strengthening.

Perhaps mix your cardio sessions (assuming long distance aerobic) every few days with an anaerobic style workout. Fast and long sprints with brief rest times between sprints. Sprint 400m, rest 100m, sprint 800 meters rest 200m or 400m. mix and match as needed. Just try to make sure the sprint distances are at least twice as long as the rest times

As far as diet goes:

not the best of help but if youre looking for a full meal but light on the plate look into a few of these links:
- http://www.ehow.com/about_5082608_fi...-calories.html
- http://www.livestrong.com/article/37...althy-filling/

Hope this helps!

[Comby]

The escuse of not eating protein or lifting weights for girls because you "dont wanna get big muscles and bigger" is complete and utter nonsence. Girls have an incredibly, insanely hard time gaining any sort of muscle mass. Its not only a fact but also something I see with several girls I work out with, who do tons of weightlifting.
And its almost literally impossible to gain muscle when you are on a calorie deficit diet. (exception can be people who have never worked out at all and are gaining basic muscle strenght) Eating lots of protein will speed your metabolism and do only good. Protein has the highest thermic rate of all nutrition, 30% of it is used up in the disgestion itself. Fat is around 1%.

Never be afraid of getting too strong and big, you wont get much bigger without intense weighlifting programs and huge ammounts of food. Weightlifting is one of the most important thing you can do when you want to lose weight. Especially doing excersises that utilizes big muscle groups, like deadlifts and legpress ( yes, deadlifts for girls) Using these muscles will require huge ammounts of energy and will get your body much more efficient at fat burning. Weightlifts are just as if not more important alongside cardio.

Edit: By lots I mean your own weight in pounds by grams. (This might be a bit too much tho as its not lean weight and you are a girl, this is more bodybuilder numbers, but aslong as you stay on a calorie deficit diet there wont be a problem, muscle dont come easy
Calories per g fat is 9
calories per g protein and carbohydrates is 4

[Gheld]

Hi all. I've been working on losing weight for around 2 months now and I've just recently hit a plateau. Things were going great up until 2 weeks ago, I was losing 1-2lbs a week and ever since then I've been stuck at my current weight.
I'm 19, female, I weigh 167lbs and I'm 5'8. I do high intensity cardio 30 minutes a day 5-6 days a week and do a little bit of strength stuff once or twice a week just to try and tone my arms and upper thighs. I eat 1200 calories a day, lots of fruits and veggies and lean meats or fish. The only carbs I eat regularly is my Special K cereal for breakfast and sometimes I'll have a sandwich for lunch. I don't drink pop or eat fast food more than once a month. I never eat anything sugary either, and I only drink water or tea.
I'm really confused as to why I'm not losing weight anymore, what can I do to start losing again?

Also, what can I eat to keep my calories around 1200 per day that's healthy? I eat 200 for breakfast, 400 for lunch, and 600 for dinner. At dinner time I really really struggle to find 600 calories of stuff I can eat because everything I eat is very healthy and therefor low in calories so I have to make a ton of food and sometimes it's just frustrating because I don't know how to cook very much so I find myself eating the same dinner over and over because it's all I know how to make that gives me enough calories without being fattening.

1200 calories a day is literally starvation and is thus not healthy eating. I find it very difficult to believe that one can plateau at 167 on such little energy.

I also think of goal weights as something very worthless in terms of being healthy. The climate you live in, muscular demand, your skeletal structure, water retention etc. Will all effect what your ideal weight is. It's possible you are getting calories through other sources too though. (How much sugar do you put in your tea? are you tallying up the calories of any sauces you put on meat or fish? (a 2 tbsp serving of honey garlic sauce has 140 calories) do you count any alcohol you consume? (alcohol is the #1 source of empty calories for somebody your age, one 25 gram serving of 40% alcohol (i.e. a shot) has 56 calories, a 12 ounce serving of "light beer" has over 100 calories, etc)

Are you also counting the sugar calories from fruit you eat? Naturally sourced sugar is for sure healthier than refined sugar but exactly identical as far as caloric value goes. An average Granny Smith apple has 17 grams of sugar for a total of 80 calories. A California orange has 69 calories. A serving of grapes has 62 calories. And here's the real kicker. A single serving of Bananas contains over 100 calories.

So here's my advice:

Stay active, factor in anything you are missing from your caloric intake,
http://caloriecount.about.com/ is a pretty helpful tool for that.

Aim for a healthy 2000-2200 calorie/day diet. Continue eating a healthy balanced diet, stay active, and quit worrying about your specific weight because as long as you are below the 200 lb mark I wouldn't worry too much.

EDIT: Also a 1 cup serving of 1% milk has approximately 100 calories. A typical tall glass is about 2 cups.

EDIT2: Anything other than this as far as weight loss goes is pure snake oil:

If Calories in > Calories burned you gain weight.
If calories in < Calories burned you lose weight.
If calories in = calories burned you neither gain nor lose weight.

Plus to really properly determine your weight you have to really go by your fasted weight. (i.e. after you do all your morning business and before you eat breakfast step on the scale[with your hair dry, your hair could easily wick up several pounds of water].

When I wake up in the morning for example I weigh 215 lbs. By the time I finish lunch I weigh 217 lbs and that's back down to 215 when I step on the scale the next morning. So in the interests of proper science each measurement must be taken under identical conditions.

[Comby]

Also, if you're an american, make absolutely all food you eat yourself From scratch.

[Aspect of Death]

Most of the things have been said already, but there is one thing that havent been said yet.
You say you eat 3 times aday and only 1200 (way too little, you will gain it all back when you start to eat "normal" again.)

Anyway you should eat upto 5 times aday, not much, just "eat little, but often". Helps you burn more fat.
And something that might be the reason for your plateau, when you eat 3 times aday, and you said you had to add more food due to the fact that you are trying to reach the 600c for dinner, makes you eat "too much" and it wont get burned.
Never get "full", and you will loose weight.

[Gheld]

Most of the things have been said already, but there is one thing that havent been said yet.
You say you eat 3 times aday and only 1200 (way too little, you will gain it all back when you start to eat "normal" again.)

Anyway you should eat upto 5 times aday, not much, just "eat little, but often". Helps you burn more fat.
And something that might be the reason for your plateau, when you eat 3 times aday, and you said you had to add more food due to the fact that you are trying to reach the 600c for dinner, makes you eat "too much" and it wont get burned.
Never get "full", and you will loose weight.

XT wearing blue lab coat: NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!

160 lbs = 711.7 Newtons

1 Newton meter of work requires 1 joule of energy.

So if she weighs exactly 711.7 newtons and moves one meter, with 100% efficiency She will burn 711.7 Joules of energy.

711.7*(.24)=170 small calories (or 0.17 dietary calories).

Metabolism effects calories burned by metabolic processes only. calories burned by exercise will remain the same no matter what. That 1 meter walk will always burn 0.17calories.

So the only logical conclusion is that she is incorrect about the actual caloric intake.

[dadadumdums]

try amphetamine

[Rust in Peace]

1200-1500kcal a day for a female trying to lose weight is fine. 2000kcal a day is the minimum for men.

eat a high protein diet. get your carbs from vegetables. eat good fats, from eggs, fish, etc. you need these to build muscle (ie. toning because that is what "toned" is - building muscle). also dont fill up on fruits when you're hungry - they are full of sugar and simple carbs.

to achieve this you need to do more strength training. adding muscle will also increase the number of calories your body burns at rest and will make it easier to keep you in shape and your body fat lower. only doing cardio will make you lose weight; but without strength training some of the weight you lose will be muscle, not just fat. if you are trying to change your body composition, meaning lose fat and gain muscle, doing strictly cardio will not give you the results you want.

for females this is relatively easy because just doing body weight resistance exercises will be enough to get you started. things like pushups, pullups/chinups, body weight squats, crunches and chair dips should be a decent challenge. personally i would recommend a beginner barbell weight training routine doing deadlifts, bench, squats and overhead press as well. but you'll need to get a gym membership because you need good equipment to perform these movements properly.

if you dont know what those exercises are youtube is a great resource. there's lots of how to videos that professionals have put up to guide you through it.

[damntree]

I see people are still subscribing to that eat 5 meals a day crap. You do know that's a myth?

[Comby]

I see people are still subscribing to that eat 5 meals a day crap. You do know that's a myth?

It's not a myth dude. Making stuff up and calling it a fact aint facts.

your metabolism is like a campfire, feed it too litte and it will barely burn at all, feed it too much at a time and you will extinguish it. Feed it a proper ammount often enough and it will burn strongly and all day

Just think about your life, at some point you have eaten such a huge meal that you havent been hungry again almost all day. Even tho the meal you eat is huge, its not even close to your daily need. And all that excess energy you just consumed will have nowhere else to go than beeing transformed into fat. Which is what fat is, fat is excess energy the body cant use. Small meals leave barely anything to be stored.

[Rust in Peace]

I see people are still subscribing to that eat 5 meals a day crap. You do know that's a myth?

It's a helpful technique for people trying to lose weight because it promotes meal planning and discourages waiting until you are really hungry. Basically you eat so that you are never hungry but not until you are completely full. There is no magic behind it that will burn more calories than eating 2 big meals a day which is something that does work for some people I know who are in competition body builder shape. Your body will adapt to your habits no matter what. People are just sharing what works for them.

[Comby]

It's a helpful technique for people trying to lose weight because it promotes meal planning and discourages waiting until you are really hungry. Basically you eat so that you are never hungry but not until you are completely full. There is no magic behind it that will burn more calories than eating 2 big meals a day which is something that does work for some people I know who are in competition body builder shape. Your body will adapt to your habits no matter what. People are just sharing what works for them.

If you are an actual competing bodybuilder and are eating 2 meals a day you're a complete moron, that also include those who are just in body builder shape. Thats so much wasted gain and will kill their progress tremendously. No bodybuilder will do this, unless its right before a comeptition where they get rid of absolutely all excess waterweight, and those meals wont be huge, fairly small. Even a genetic freak who gain muscle easy without gaining fat would be a moron to do this.

Your body can only use a sertain ammount of protein at the time, the rest just goes back out or are stored as fat. Your progress would go down the toilet.

[insen]

well I'm not a coach or something but I really have to say you are freaking fixated on calories. Eat what you want but not too much of course. Also workouts are totally useless if your only goal is to lose weight. They strengthen you and you build up muscles. And I hope you know that muscles are heavier than fat.
Simply move a bit, depends on your day tho and everythings fine.
to all these 5 times a day eaters. Well I dont like that kind of diet. Imo it's really dangerous that you eat too much.

also when you want to do workouts its better to eat more because your body will burn the calories because your digestive system will be better at burning calories.